Museo dell'Opera di Santa Croce

The Museo dell'Opera di Santa Croce is located in the convent and gathers together historic and artistic materials coming from the church and the convent before 1900.

The entrance is in Piazza Santa Croce on the right side of the church at number 16. The setting of the museum, above all the cloisters and the refectory, give the idea of a walk in a mystic place and recall a spiritual plane long lost to modern memory.

After the ticket office there is the fist cloister, called the Great Cloister, dating from 1453, where there is visible a bronze sculpture of a warrior by Henry Moore, among other important sculptures.

The visit continues with the fourteenth century Refectory, where the spectator's attention is immediately drawn to Cimabue's splendid Crucifix. In the same majestic location are placed other important examples of sacred art, such as frescoes by Orcagna and the Tree of Life and the Cenacolo by Taddeo Gaddi.

The mystic character of the works displayed here is highlighted by the rigorous silence of the room. The second room hosts frescoes and models from the bell tower. In the third room are exhibited frescoes and sculptures from the fourteenth, fifteenth, and nineteenth centuries.

The second cloister and the arched corridor contain funeral monuments of the nineteenth century. Returning toward the exit it is possible to visit the splendid Pazzi Chapel designed by Brunelleschi in 1442 and competed by artists like Giuliano da Maiano and Michelozzo on a commission of the Pazzi family.